Ancient Aliens season 1, episode 4

Ancient Aliens:Arguably
the most remarkable Mayan artifact ever found , the stone sarcophagus
lid of king Pacal has produced considerable contraversy.

Ancient Aliens: Mainstream scholars believe the depiction is of King Pacal on a journey
to the underworld. But ancient astronaut theorists believe the king is
portrayed seated at the controls of a spacecraft and have dubbed him the
Palenque astronaut.

David Childriss:He appears to be going into space. He's the original rocket man there manipulating his space craft , going into space.

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:We
have maintained for a very long time that the depiction here is of King
Pacal sitting inside some type of a space craft because he is at an
angle like modern day astronauts upon lift-off. He's manipulating some
controls right here. He has some type of breating apparatus or some type
of a telescope in front of his face. His feet are on some type of a
pedal. and down here you have something that looks like an exhaust with
flames.

Ancient Aliens:In 2011, the strange carving on King Pacal's sarcophagus lid was translated into a 3D replica by model maker Paul Francis

Model inspired by the Pakal Votan tomb lid image as seen on Ancient Aliens

Paul Francis: When
I saw this, I instantly said, there's a guy in a space capsule, you
know, it doesn't need to be spelled out for me, I don't have to find
anything, it was already there, it was carved many many years ago.

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:I
think this is absolutely extraordinary because this is definitely one
of these most compelling pieces in the ancient astronaut theory, and to
finally see Pacal as a 3D sculpture to me is a dream come true.

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:For the
longest time we have said what is on this Pacal lid is not symbolic, it
was something the artist saw or was told about and then he or she tried
to recreate this on a slab. I love the craftsmanship, I love how you,
you know at the bottom of the Palenque slab, you see something like, the
flames

Paul Francis:It looks something like fire and and

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:Exactly

Paul Francis:And I had to do a little interpretive, I put engine bells on instead of the flame

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:Of course

Paul Francis:But that's the thruster stage

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:I
also love the detail that you have underneath his right foot where his
foot is resting on a pedastool and that is exactly what we can see in
the Palenque slab...

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:and how his hands are manipulating some controls,

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:and
also this kind of breathing apparatus that's going on in front of his
nose

Paul Francis: The
breathing apparatus is actually a very neat piece, it's called the
giver of life. The soul transfers through this. And the giver of life to
me would be, air. I mean we breathe air. This is a guy who needs this
mask to survive

Giorgio A Tsoukalos:Because, where is he?

Paul Francis:Outer space

Ancient Aliens: Could
the carving on the sarcophagus lid really provide confirmation of the
complicity between Maya rulers and extra-terrestrial forces as Ancient
Astronaut theorists believe?

(Ancient Aliens season 1, episode 4)

Posted by
wmmvrrvrrmm

14 comments:

Earlier Piyush Kumar entered a message here "nice post!" and when I clicked onto the link underneath his message to get to this page from the page with all the comments on it that I have to see, I accidently deleted his comment by mistake. However I wish to say "Thanks, Piyush!"

Oops Sorry Michael. I accidently deleted your comment but you said that your professor at university said that it is a man going into the underworld, and indeed this would be a correct point of view about interpretation. But indeed there are ways for some people to imagine that it is a man in a space capsule of some sort. I don't actually personally believe that it must be a space capsule but I can see how it can be interpreted as one by people and I will be open minded about the whole thing. Here is my page breaking down what is understood in much more traditional archeological terms. http://alienexplorations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/mythology-behind-tomb-lid-of-pakal-votan.html

Karoly, I accidently deleted your message but didn't mean to. it seems to be a regular thing here. You asked if the Mayan Rocket Man was made into a kit. I haven't seen anything so far to say it was, and yes maybe it ought to be,

Yes, unfortunately every time I clicked onto the link that would bring me to this page from the page where I get to see the list of the latest comments that have come through, I accidently clicked on the remove comment button. One can only be thankful that they didn't have much to say and that I read the comment before I accidently clicked on the remove comment button. If there was an restore comment button, I would be happy to restore their comments.

I have never built one. The idea of turning the tomb lid into a space craft does interest me and it's interesting that they should attempt to build one in this TV program. Paul Francis who built that model for the show has more photos of it at his website (http://www.lucasfrancisstudio.com/lfs/film-work?album=7&gallery=110) and perhaps there is a way to contact him through there or even Facebook where he is to be found as Paul. E. Francis.